Fire severity drives understory community dynamics and the recovery of culturally significant plants
Abstract Anthropogenic influences are altering fire regimes worldwide, resulting in an increase in the size and severity of wildfires. Simultaneously, throughout western North America, there is increasing recognition of the important role of Indigenous fire stewardship in shaping historical fire reg...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:22c286bb5e22487cb2a0cbfe041ab078 2024-09-15T18:06:49+00:00 Fire severity drives understory community dynamics and the recovery of culturally significant plants Sarah Dickson‐Hoyle St̓uxwtéws (Bonaparte First Nation) Skeetchestn Natural Resources Corporation Arial Eatherton Jennifer N. Baron Florencia Tiribelli Lori D. Daniels 2024-03-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4795 https://doaj.org/article/22c286bb5e22487cb2a0cbfe041ab078 EN eng Wiley https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4795 https://doaj.org/toc/2150-8925 2150-8925 doi:10.1002/ecs2.4795 https://doaj.org/article/22c286bb5e22487cb2a0cbfe041ab078 Ecosphere, Vol 15, Iss 3, Pp n/a-n/a (2024) British Columbia disturbance ecology ethnobotany fire regime Indigenous fire stewardship megafire Ecology QH540-549.5 article 2024 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4795 2024-08-05T17:49:45Z Abstract Anthropogenic influences are altering fire regimes worldwide, resulting in an increase in the size and severity of wildfires. Simultaneously, throughout western North America, there is increasing recognition of the important role of Indigenous fire stewardship in shaping historical fire regimes and fire‐adapted ecosystems. However, there is limited understanding of how ecosystems are affected by or recover from contemporary “megafires,” particularly in terms of understory plant communities that are critical to both biodiversity and Indigenous cultures. To address this gap, our collaborative study, in partnership with Secwépemc First Nations, examined understory community recovery following a large, mixed‐severity wildfire that burned in the dry and mesic conifer forests of British Columbia, Canada, with a focus on plants of high cultural significance to Secwépemc communities. To measure the effect of a continuous gradient of fire severity across forest types, we conducted field assessments of fire severity and sampled understory plants 4 years postfire. We found that native species richness and richness of species of high cultural significance were lowest in areas that burned at high severity, with distinct compositional differences between unburned areas and those that burned at high severity. These findings were consistent across forest types characterized by distinct historical fire regimes. In contrast, richness of exotic species increased with increasing fire severity in the dominant montane interior Douglas‐fir forests, with exotic species closely associated with areas that burned at high severity. Our study indicates that recent megafires may be pushing ecosystems outside their historical range of variability, with negative implications for ecosystem recovery and cultural use across these fire‐affected landscapes. We also found consistently higher plant diversity, and both native and cultural species richness, in subalpine forests. Collectively, our results provide strong evidence of the ... Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Ecosphere 15 3 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
British Columbia disturbance ecology ethnobotany fire regime Indigenous fire stewardship megafire Ecology QH540-549.5 |
spellingShingle |
British Columbia disturbance ecology ethnobotany fire regime Indigenous fire stewardship megafire Ecology QH540-549.5 Sarah Dickson‐Hoyle St̓uxwtéws (Bonaparte First Nation) Skeetchestn Natural Resources Corporation Arial Eatherton Jennifer N. Baron Florencia Tiribelli Lori D. Daniels Fire severity drives understory community dynamics and the recovery of culturally significant plants |
topic_facet |
British Columbia disturbance ecology ethnobotany fire regime Indigenous fire stewardship megafire Ecology QH540-549.5 |
description |
Abstract Anthropogenic influences are altering fire regimes worldwide, resulting in an increase in the size and severity of wildfires. Simultaneously, throughout western North America, there is increasing recognition of the important role of Indigenous fire stewardship in shaping historical fire regimes and fire‐adapted ecosystems. However, there is limited understanding of how ecosystems are affected by or recover from contemporary “megafires,” particularly in terms of understory plant communities that are critical to both biodiversity and Indigenous cultures. To address this gap, our collaborative study, in partnership with Secwépemc First Nations, examined understory community recovery following a large, mixed‐severity wildfire that burned in the dry and mesic conifer forests of British Columbia, Canada, with a focus on plants of high cultural significance to Secwépemc communities. To measure the effect of a continuous gradient of fire severity across forest types, we conducted field assessments of fire severity and sampled understory plants 4 years postfire. We found that native species richness and richness of species of high cultural significance were lowest in areas that burned at high severity, with distinct compositional differences between unburned areas and those that burned at high severity. These findings were consistent across forest types characterized by distinct historical fire regimes. In contrast, richness of exotic species increased with increasing fire severity in the dominant montane interior Douglas‐fir forests, with exotic species closely associated with areas that burned at high severity. Our study indicates that recent megafires may be pushing ecosystems outside their historical range of variability, with negative implications for ecosystem recovery and cultural use across these fire‐affected landscapes. We also found consistently higher plant diversity, and both native and cultural species richness, in subalpine forests. Collectively, our results provide strong evidence of the ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sarah Dickson‐Hoyle St̓uxwtéws (Bonaparte First Nation) Skeetchestn Natural Resources Corporation Arial Eatherton Jennifer N. Baron Florencia Tiribelli Lori D. Daniels |
author_facet |
Sarah Dickson‐Hoyle St̓uxwtéws (Bonaparte First Nation) Skeetchestn Natural Resources Corporation Arial Eatherton Jennifer N. Baron Florencia Tiribelli Lori D. Daniels |
author_sort |
Sarah Dickson‐Hoyle |
title |
Fire severity drives understory community dynamics and the recovery of culturally significant plants |
title_short |
Fire severity drives understory community dynamics and the recovery of culturally significant plants |
title_full |
Fire severity drives understory community dynamics and the recovery of culturally significant plants |
title_fullStr |
Fire severity drives understory community dynamics and the recovery of culturally significant plants |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fire severity drives understory community dynamics and the recovery of culturally significant plants |
title_sort |
fire severity drives understory community dynamics and the recovery of culturally significant plants |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4795 https://doaj.org/article/22c286bb5e22487cb2a0cbfe041ab078 |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_source |
Ecosphere, Vol 15, Iss 3, Pp n/a-n/a (2024) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4795 https://doaj.org/toc/2150-8925 2150-8925 doi:10.1002/ecs2.4795 https://doaj.org/article/22c286bb5e22487cb2a0cbfe041ab078 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4795 |
container_title |
Ecosphere |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
3 |
_version_ |
1810444191661031424 |